I’ve come to find that hot flashes aren’t always unwelcome. The cold winter months are just a tiny bit easier when you’re “blessed” by a hot flash while running outside. Of course, not every time one comes upon you while running outside in sub-freezing weather is good…
I try and do the Washington Heights 5K (formerly known as the Coogans’ 5K) every year. It’s generally the first weekend in March and it’s usually still pretty cold then. This year was no exception, but this was the first year in the last several in which I was also prepared for a really strong race. In past years I had been training hard just yet or was training for a marathon so I had to do the 5K in the middle of a 10-15 mile long run so this was never a race in which I was prepared to really race.
But this year was different. After taking most of November and December to recover from the NYC Marathon, I got back into a regular schedule in January and was logging between 20-30 miles a week consistently, with lots of hills and strength training. I was feeling pretty good for the start of this race and was ready to break my course PR at long last.
As it turned out, one of my teammates, Laura, (yes, the same one who came to my rescue in NJ….) was just coming back from injury so while she wanted to run, she didn’t want to push too hard so she was looking for someone to pace. I gave her the time I wanted to beat, the per mile pace we needed, and we were off.
The first mile was just a few seconds off the pace, but that’s to be expected with a crowded field and relatively small street. By the second mile the pack was a little more spread out and we had room to run. We shaved 20 seconds off that mile, now ahead of the pace I wanted but I was feeling strong and knew there was only one more hill to get over. Laura pulled me up that thing and we started down the other side, pushing to the finish. Since she was just in front of me, yelling and pulling I knew all I had to do was stick with her. I was on pace and had the juice left. With just half a mile left I knew I could do it but out of nowhere, my head started to heat up and before I knew it, I was ripping off my hat, gloves, and jacket. Once again, there was Laura ready to take my extra clothes and push me all the way to the finish.
All I could hear was her yelling, “Come on! Just like track! Whatever you have left!” My head was so hot I could feel my pulse throbbing in my temples but I could see the finish line so I pushed through with whatever was left. We crossed the finish line and I looked at my watch. I had managed a 30+ second personal course record! I knew I was going to have a good race that day, but really didn’t expect to be dealing with a hot flash and didn’t think I was going to crush it that hard.
There was a fair amount of dizziness after the finish. I made sure to grab an apple and a bagel to get my blood sugar back up and drank water and Gatorade to re-hydrate. I was able to recover quickly and even complete my run home from the race as planned (another 4 miles, not too long).
What I learned from this experience was that even though my head felt like it was going to explode, it didn’t. I was still able to push through and have a great race so one flash isn’t enough to keep me down. There was a good outcome for that 5K. Let’s hope I don’t have to push through any hormonal issues in my half marathon this weekend….